While at the CIA, he wrote regularly for the President’s Daily Brief, delivered classified testimony to Congressional oversight committees, and briefed senior White House officials, Ambassadors, military officials, and Arab royalty.
McCloskey worked in CIA field stations across the Middle East throughout the Arab Spring and conducted a rotation in the Counterterrorism Center focused on the jihad in Syria and Iraq. During his time at McKinsey, he advised national security, aerospace, and transportation clients on a range of strategic and operational issues.
For the Waterstones blog McCloskey tagged five favorite spy novels, including:
Fatherland by Robert HarrisRead about the other entries on the list.
Alright, I admit it – this Robert Harris historical thriller is spy-adjacent, not pure espionage like the others on this list, but it is near enough and, more importantly, it is a masterpiece. Set in 1964 in an alternative history in which Nazi Germany has prevailed in World War 2, the story centers on a detective investigating the murder of a government official who had participated in the Wannsee Conference, which oversaw planning for the Final Solution. This is a thriller and a murder mystery, but like the best spy novels it is also a story about love, betrayal, and how humans try to survive in inhuman political systems. Absolutely brilliant.
Fatherland is among Josh Weiss's ten top alternate history thrillers and Jay Rayner's six best books.
--Marshal Zeringue
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